A blog for Idaho job seekers and employers

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Nearly 140 years after the first railroad was built in Idaho, railroads remain vital to Idaho’s economic success, connecting Idaho’s communities to the global economy. Increasingly, they provide a critical link to international markets through intermodal facilities at ports and other places where goods are transferred to and from rails, ships and trucks. One train can carry as much freight as several hundred trucks, making them about four times more fuel efficient than trucks while easing highway congestion and reducing carbon emissions.

The components of personal income in Idaho have changed since 1979 and the three recessions over the next seven years. Wages and business profits accounted for more than two-thirds of personal income in 1979. Today they combine for almost 55 percent.

Filling that void have been government transfer payments, primarily Social Security and Medicare, which rose less than 11 percent to more than 18 percent over the past 35 years.

Investment earnings have remained relatively constant at around 20 percent.

Food processing is one of the strongest industry clusters in south central Idaho, primarily focused in Jerome, Twin Falls, Cassia and Minidoka counties.

(Click on chart below to enlarge.)

Agriculture is driving this sector through the added value that the availability of commodities has fostered. In a state where livestock outnumber people by more than a million, animal production is the largest component, dominated by the dairy industry.

Social media has become an essential tool for job seekers. Whether you are using social media to look for a job, optimizing your social media profiles for the job search, or using social media in the workplace, there are rules and laws that apply. Be sure to stay up to date on how to effectively use social media, as well as how employers can legally use it to make hiring and firing decisions. Here are some tips for using social media to look for work:

Google Yourself. Conduct a personal audit of your online presence. Search yourself on Google to see who you are online. If there are negative search results, manage them by shutting down damaging references, managing your results through sites like brandyourself.com or reputation.com, or simply increase positive posts to drive down the negative ones. Put a Google alert out on your name so you are notified any time you are mentioned on the Internet.

Idaho’s natural resource-based economy has experienced a significant number of workplace deaths. Between 2003 and 2013, more than half of those deaths were in the agriculture and transportation industries.

During 2013, 30 work-related deaths were recorded in Idaho. Fifteen of those workplace deaths occurred during transportation incidents – the leading cause of workplace deaths over the past 10 years. More than half of the transportation accidents occurred in the agriculture sector.

By occupation, workplace deaths occurred primarily in two areas – 14 in natural resources, construction and maintenance and seven in production, transportation and material moving. Six of the 14 natural resources deaths were farming related. The deaths in the second group involved transportation occupations.

Idaho workers between 25 and 54 years old accounted for 30 percent of the work-related deaths in 2013, and 43 percent occurred among older workers – 55 and older.

The strength of agriculture and food processing in eastern Idaho sheltered the region to a degree from the past recession. Unemployment rates in most southeastern counties never exceeded 9 percent. Oneida, Franklin, Madison, Teton and Bear Lake counties all topped out around 7 percent.

Health care was another sector that helped offset job losses. Between 2007 and 2009, health care added 2,100 jobs as the region’s elderly population rose while many other sectors were shedding workers.

Despite that growth, employment in the 16 eastern counties dropped more than 9,000. Construction and administrative and support and waste management and remediation services combined for a majority of those losses – construction losing 3,200 jobs and administrative support another 2,400.